2
The ScanMars radar onboard AMADEE-18 analog mission to Mars Alessandro Frigeri (1), Maurizio Ercoli (2), Cristina Pauselli (2), Gernot Groemer (3) (1) Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, INAF, Rome, Italy ([email protected], Phone:+39-06-4993-4227); (2) Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy; (3) Österreichisches Weltraum Forum, Austrian Space Forum, Innsbruck, Austria. Abstract Simulated, or analog, planetary missions are putting the base for the forthcoming extraterrestrial explorations, testing new technologies and refining existing operative exploration procedures [1, 2, 3]. In February 2018, the Austrian Space Forum led an international Mars analog mission in the Dhofar region, Oman. Directed by a Mission Support Center in Aus- tria, a small field crew conducted experiments preparing for future human Mars missions in the fields of engi- neering, planetary surface operations, astrobiology, geo- physics/geology and life sciences. In summer 2017 our ScanMars experiment has been selected to be part of the mission. ScanMars employed a Ground Penetrating Radar to investigate the subsurface by transmitting and receiving radio-wave impulses into the ground. The expected results of the experiment are geophysical images of the underground structures, mate- rial differences and the presence of groundwater[4]. Here we present the ScanMars experiment and its re- sults from AMADEE-18 analog mission to Mars, in the Oman desert. 1 Introduction The instrumental part of the ScanMars experiment onbo- rard AMADEE-18 consists of a Zond-12e Ground Pene- trating Radar, developed by Radsys, Latvia. We choose the 500 MHz operative frequency as a good compromise between resolution, penetration depth and maneuverabil- ity. The experiment can be divided in three phases: the training, the scientific campaign and the scientific syn- thesis. Figure 1: Analog astronauts testing operative procedures during the training at OEWF headquarters in Innsbruck, Austria. 2. Training Phase The most different element from ScanMars a common radar fieldwork is undoubtedly the fact that the data was going to be acquired by the analog astronauts and not the scientists. Thus the astronauts’ training becomes a crit- ical part of the experiment. The challenge of this phase resides in the fact that the analog astronauts have a back- ground which is not specifically trimmed on the exper- iment, and that they have to acquire a large quantity of diverse information during the training (Figure 1). 3. Scientific campaign The training efforts have been put into practice during the ScanMars scientific campaign in the field in the Dhofar (Figure 2), where the field crew operated the radar over the planned scientific targets. The experiment explored four different sites with slight different geologic charac- EPSC Abstracts Vol. 12, EPSC2018-300-1, 2018 European Planetary Science Congress 2018 c Author(s) 2018 E P S C European Planetary Science Congress
